НЕХАЙ З КРАПЛІ НАРОДИТЬСЯ ЛАВИНА

Thai police ordered thousands of worshippers to leave the country’s biggest Buddhist temple Sunday so it can intensify its search for its former abbot, who is wanted on money-laundering charges.

Thailand’s ruling junta used a special emergency law Thursday to let police explore the scandal-hit Dhammakaya Temple after months of failing to persuade it to hand over Phra Dhammachayo.

On Sunday, police said that all nonresidents must vacate the premises to expedite the search of the 400 hectare (1,000 acre) facility because temple activities were hindering police.

Monks who live within the temple grounds were ordered to congregate at an exit point and not interfere with the investigation.

“We are conducting these steps so that we can conduct the search process as quickly as possible so that we can return the temple grounds to the worshippers,” Woranan Srilam of the Department for Special Investigation told Reuters.

Rare defiance of military

The temple has been a rare institution in defying the military government. Opposition from political parties and activists has largely been silenced since a coup in 2014.

Phra Dhammachayo faces charges of conspiracy to launder money and receive stolen goods, as well as taking over land unlawfully to build meditation centers. His aides dismiss the accusations as politically motivated.

“This is an abuse of power by the junta who should not interfere on religious matters,” temple spokesman and senior monk Phra Pasura Dantamano told Reuters.

“We have always been willing to negotiate and accommodate the authorities but this is too much.”

13,000 inside temple

Around 13,000 people were inside the temple as of Sunday morning, according to Dantamano, who said that the temple would have to comply with the request to evacuate.

Although the temple has no overt political affiliation, the abbot is widely believed to have had links with populist former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was overthrown in 2006. A government led by Thaksin’s sister was toppled by the army in 2014.

The Dhammakaya Temple’s brasher approach to winning adherents jars on conservatives, who say it exploits its followers and uses religion to make money. The temple says it is as committed to Buddhist values as anyone else. 
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Investigators are looking for four North Korean men who flew out of Malaysia the same day Kim Jong Nam, the North Korean ruler’s outcast half brother, was apparently poisoned at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian police said Sunday.

Since Kim’s death last week, authorities have been trying to piece together details of what appeared to be an assassination. Malaysian police have so far arrested four people carrying IDs from North Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. 

Four suspects at large 

On Sunday, the Deputy National Police Chief of Malaysia, Noor Rashid Ibrahim, said four other suspects were on the run. He said the men were North Korean and had flown out of the country last Monday, when Kim died.

“I am not going disclose where they are,” he told a room packed with journalists. Interpol was helping with the investigation, he said.

Noor Rashid showed photographs of the four North Korean men police were trying to track down. They were traveling on regular, not diplomatic, passports and are ages 33, 34, 55 and 57.

He also said there was a fifth North Korean man whom authorities wanted to question. 

Autopsy results in days  

Kim Jong Nam was waiting for his flight home to Macau when, authorities say, he was set upon by two women. He sought help at a customer service desk and said “two unidentified women had swabbed or had wiped his face with a liquid and that he felt dizzy,” Noor Rashid said Sunday.

Kim died en route to a hospital after suffering a seizure, officials say. 

Noor Rashid said Sunday that he expected autopsy results to be released within days.

“We have to send a sample to the chemistry department, we have to send a sample for toxicology tests,” he said.

Investigators also want to speak to Kim Jong Nam’s next of kin to identify the body. He is believed to have two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau. 

“We haven’t met the next of kin,” Noor Rashid said. “We are working, we are trying very hard to get the next of kin to come and to assist us in the investigation.”

The case has raised tensions between Malaysia and North Korea. Pyongyang officials have demanded custody of Kim’s body and strongly objected to an autopsy, saying they will reject any results. The Malaysians went ahead with the autopsy anyway, saying they were simply following procedure. 
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The International Monetary Fund said Sunday that it and other partners have agreed on terms for a more than $5 billion loan package to the Mongolian government to help get the north Asian country’s economy back on track. 

The deal is subject to approval by the IMF’s executive board, which is expected to consider Mongolia’s request in March.

According to the terms agreed by the Mongolian government and IMF envoys, the IMF would provide $440 million over three years. The Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Japan and South Korea are together expected to provide up to $3 billion, and the People’s Bank of China is expected to extend its 15 billion RMB ($2 billion) swap line with the Bank of Mongolia for at least another three years, the IMF statement said. 

The economy of mineral-rich Mongolia has been hit hard in recent years by a sharp decline in commodity prices and a collapse in foreign direct investment. 

Adding to Mongolia’s woes is an exceptionally cold winter for the second successive year, which the Red Cross warned last week was putting the livelihoods of more than 150,000 nomadic herders and family members at risk. 

Mongolia’s national debt now stands around $23 billion, or twice the annual economic output, and a $580 million payment to foreign bondholders is due March 21.

The IMF statement said the loan agreement would mean Mongolia has to strengthen its banking system and adopt fiscal reforms to ensure that budget discipline is maintained. 

Generally, terms required by the IMF as a condition for such lending often prompt complaints in borrower countries that the conditions hurt the poor or undercut economic growth by reducing social spending or investment in public facilities. 
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A United States aircraft carrier strike group has begun patrols in the South China Sea, the U.S. navy said on Saturday, amid renewed tension over the disputed waterway.

China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday warned Washington against challenging its sovereignty, responding to reports the United States was planning fresh naval patrols in the South China Sea.

The navy said the force, including Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, began routine operations in the South China Sea on Saturday. The announcement was posted on the Vinson’s Facebook page.
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Satsuki Ina was born behind barbed wire in a prison camp during World War Two, the daughter of U.S. citizens forced from their home without due process and locked up for years following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

Roughly 120,000 Japanese immigrants and Japanese-Americans were sent to desolate camps that dotted the West because the government claimed they might plot against the U.S. Thousands were elderly, disabled, children or infants too young to know the meaning of treason. Two-thirds were citizens.

And now, as survivors commemorate the 75th anniversary of the executive order that authorized their incarceration, they’re also speaking out to make sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Muslims, Latinos or other groups.

Executive orders

They’re alarmed by recent executive orders from President Donald Trump that limit travel and single out immigrants.

In January, Trump banned travelers from seven majority Muslim nations from entering the U.S., saying he wanted to thwart potential attackers from slipping into the country. A federal court halted the ban. Trump said at a news conference Thursday that he would issue a replacement order next week.

“We know what it sounds like. We know what the mood of the country can be. We know a president who is going to see people in a way that could victimize us,” said Ina, a 72-year-old psychotherapist who lives in Oakland, California.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, to protect against espionage and sabotage. Notices appeared ordering people of Japanese descent to report to civil stations for transport.

Desperate families sold off belongings for cheap and packed what they could. The luckier ones had white friends who agreed to care for houses, farms and businesses in their absence.

“Others who couldn’t pay their mortgage, couldn’t pay their bills, they lost everything. So they had to pretty much start from scratch,” said Rosalyn Tonai, 56, executive director of the National Japanese American Historical Society in San Francisco.

Tonai was shocked to learn in middle school that the U.S. government had incarcerated her mother, aunts and grandparents. Her family hadn’t talked about it. Her mother, a teenager at the time, said she didn’t remember details.

‘Internment’

Her organization, the Japanese American Citizens League and others oppose the use of the word “internment.” They say the government used euphemisms such as “internment,” “evacuation,” and “non-alien” to hide the fact that U.S. citizens were incarcerated and the Constitution violated.

The groups say this White House has what they see as the same dangerous and flippant attitude toward the Constitution. Japanese-American lawmakers expressed horror when a Donald Trump supporter cited the camps as precedent for a Muslim registry.

The Japanese American Citizens League “vehemently” objected to executive orders signed by Trump last month, to build a wall along the Mexican border, punish “sanctuary” cities that protect people living in the country illegally, and limit refugees and immigrants from entering the country.

“Although the threat of terrorism is real, we must learn from our history and not allow our fears to overwhelm our values,” the statement read in part.

Hiroshi Kashiwagi was 19 when his family was ordered from their home in Northern California’s Placer County and to a temporary detention center.

He remembers slaughtering his prized chickens — New Hampshire Reds — for his mother to cook with soy sauce and sugar. She stored the bottled birds in sturdy sacks to take on the trip. The family ate the chickens at night to supplement meals. The birds didn’t last long.

Today, Kashiwagi, 94, is a poet and writer in San Francisco who speaks to the public about life at Tule Lake, a maximum security camp near the Oregon border. Winters were cold, the summers hot. They were helpless against dust storms that seeped inside.

“I feel obligated to speak out, although it’s not a favorite subject,” he said. “Who knows what can happen? The way this president is, he does not go by the rules. I’m hoping that he would be impeached.”

Orders against Japanese-Americans were revoked after the war ended in 1945. They returned to hostility and discrimination in finding work or places to live.

‘Race prejudice’

A congressional commission formed in 1980 blamed the incarceration on “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.” In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill to compensate every survivor with a tax-free check for $20,000 and a formal apology from the U.S. government.

Ina said that only then did her mother, Shizuko, feel she got her face back, her dignity returned. By then her father, Itaru, had died.

“This is a burden we’ve been carrying, and if we can make that burden into something meaningful that could help and protect other people, then it becomes not so much an obligation but more as a responsibility,” Ina said.

After Trump’s election, Ina vowed to reach out to the Muslim community and protest and tell everyone about what happened to her family. She brought her message to a gathering of camp survivors in the Los Angeles area.

“And this old woman, she had a cane, she said, ‘OK. I’m going to tell everybody about what happened. This is very bad. It’s happening again,’ ” she said. “It’s that kind of spirit.”
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Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan, fired a barrage of artillery into its neighbor’s territory and staged a major domestic crackdown on militant groups, reportedly killing more than 100 suspects, in response to the deadliest terror attack in the country in years.

It was the latest in a series of deadly attacks in both nations that have been claimed by Islamic State. That could provide grounds for a united fight against terrorism but instead seems to be pushing the two countries apart in a flurry of accusations that each side is harboring groups responsible for cross-border attacks.

Thursday’s suicide bombings hit one of Pakistan’s most revered Sufi shrines, killing at least 72 people and injuring scores more.

Scenes of the carnage in Sindh province sent shock waves up through the Pakistani government. It blamed the Jama-ul-Ahrar group, operating out of Afghanistan, for being “behind these barbaric acts of terrorism,” according to a statement from the office of Sartaj Aziz, adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs. Pakistan said it lodged a strong protest with Afghanistan.

The two countries have swapped accusations that not enough has been done to root out extremists launching cross-border attacks from both sides.

According to the statement from his office, Aziz spoke by phone with Afghan National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar, saying the fight against terrorism requires close cooperation, particularly in policing the border.

Aziz expressed “serious concern” that Afghanistan had not paid heed to Pakistan’s repeated calls for action against Jama-ul-Ahrar.

‘Effective strategies’ needed

Atmar’s office said he condemned such “abhorrent” attacks on civilians, and pointed out that Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for several recent attacks in Afghanistan.

“Both countries must maintain strong and transparent commitments to preventing such groups from operating on their soil,” Atmar’s office said in a statement. “We must find and execute effective strategies to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries wherever they exist.”

But Pakistan was clearly in no mood to talk cooperation on this day and only wanted immediate results.

In an unusual move, Afghan embassy officials were summoned to the army’s headquarters in Rawalpindi – not to the Foreign Office in Islamabad – and given a list of 76 “most wanted” terrorists that Pakistan wants apprehended immediately and handed over.

Security forces have been given special orders to maintain strict vigilance all along the border, according to a statement by the Pakistani military’s media wing.

“The border has been closed since last night due to security reasons. No cross-border or unauthorized entry will be allowed into Pakistan from Afghanistan,” the statement said.

Shah Hussain Murtazawi, spokesman for Afghanistan’s deputy president, lamented the decision, telling VOA: “Closing borders does not solve the problems.”

Major border crossings at Spin Boldak in the south and Torkham in the north were closed, with troops standing guard. U.S.-led NATO forces heavily depend on both for their logistics supply in Afghanistan. Long lines of trucks and cars were backed up on both sides, hoping the closure would be short.

False sense of security blamed

Tasneem Noorani, a former Pakistani interior secretary and analyst, said the government was under pressure to take action.

“I think in the present situation, government’s reaction is in the right direction,” he said. “At least [people] would see that authorities are doing something.”

Noorani said the government may have been lulled into a false sense of security by a relative calm over the last few months following an aggressive stance toward terrorists over the previous two years.

“The government and military might have thought that [terrorists] gave up [their activities],” Noorani said. “In fact, that was not the case.”

The U.S. State Department strongly condemned the attack and offered Pakistan support in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

“Today’s attack is only the latest in a series of violent acts this past week in Lahore, Balochistan, Peshawar and Mohmand Agency,” it said in a statement. “We stand with the people of Pakistan in their fight against terrorism and remain committed to the security of the South Asia region.”

The military statement said the army chief had ordered security operations against terrorists across the country that already had killed more than 100 suspected militants. In addition, retaliatory strikes were carried out in Afghan villages across the border.

“The intelligence agencies are making progress to unearth networks behind the recent terrorism incidents,” the statement said.

However, politicians, defense analysts and columnists expressed reservations over the military actions, calling it an “emotional” response.

Syed Iftikhar ul Hassan, a member of the National Assembly from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N), suggested that the terror attacks have a bigger purpose as part of a “conspiracy against the government” to halt army operations against militants and to derail a planned “Economic Corridor with China.”

“There was a huge network that is being fixed and soon things will be all right,” he said.
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Protesters have rallied in the Australian city of Melbourne to oppose a deal to send refugees held in offshore migrant camps to the United States.  The agreement was struck last November with the Obama administration.  Its future is unclear after President Trump called it a “dumb deal.”

Under the agreement, about 1,250 refugees from Australian-sponsored offshore detention centers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru would be resettled in the United States.  Most are from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.  The government in Canberra has refused to allow their entry under strict border security measures, which prevent asylum seekers who arrive by boat from being resettled in Australia.  The agreement with Washington is to be overseen by the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.

Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered in Melbourne to voice their opposition to the deal.  They argue that hundreds of refugees would be left out of the plan, which has no specific time-frame.

‘Australia’s responsibility’

Chris Breen from the Refugee Action Collective in Melbourne is urging Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to allow the refugees to resettle in Australia.

“Ultimately these refugees are Australia’s responsibility.  They came seeking asylum in Australia, so we are today calling on the Turnbull government to bring those refugees here.  We are saying the United States deal is not a solution,” Breen said.

The future of the refugee deal is, however, uncertain.  Earlier this month, President Donald Trump tweeted that he would “study this dumb deal.”  At the time, The Washington Post reported that in a phone call Trump accused the Australian prime minister of trying to export what he called the “next Boston bombers” to America.

Australia sponsors two offshore processing camps in the South Pacific as part of its policy of trying to stop asylum seekers reaching its territorial waters by boat.  Ministers have insisted it is a deterrent and dissuades migrants from risking their lives in hostile seas.  Campaigners, though, have described conditions in the camps as “hellish” and want them closed down.
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The U.N.’s top human rights official, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, is urging Myanmar’s leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to use her moral authority to ease the plight of the country’s disenfranchised Rohingya community.

Aung San Suu Kyi has come under mounting criticism from the international community for her failure to speak out on behalf of the Rohingya, a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.  

But there are signs this may be changing, says  Ravina Shamdasani is spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.  

She told VOA the High Commissioner spoke personally to Aung San Suu Kyi by phone earlier this month.  This call took place after the release of an investigative report that documents alleged atrocities committed by Myanmar’s military against the Rohingya.

“She [Aung San Suu Kyi] was quite shocked to hear the details of these findings and she said that she would have to initiate an investigation. They would need more evidence. The High Commissioner asked her to use all her moral standing to bring this counterinsurgency operation to an end.”

About 69,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since October 9, following an oppressive military operation in Rakhine State.  U.N. investigators interviewed 220 of these people who described acts of unbearable cruelty, including mass gang-rapes, killings and disappearances.

Shamdasani says the High Commissioner understands the new government has a difficult balancing act in this period of transition.  But, she added he believes the violence and suffering of the Rohingya has reached unprecedented levels.

“It is very important that people here signal from the very top that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and that there will be accountability…. It may be too soon to say whether this will be the ultimate breakthrough for the Rohingya in Myanmar, but we believe it is heading in that direction.  There is a momentum towards a breakthrough on this issue,” Shamdasani said.  

In what could be a harbinger of better things to come for the Rohingya, Myanmar has ended its military operation in Rakhine State this week.
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Most experts agree that we are past the dawn of robotic age, and one of the countries strongly pushing to the forefront is China. As the cost of human labor in China is rising, factories are increasingly replacing production line workers with robots. VOA’s George Putic reports.
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Pakistan has seen a wave of terrorist attacks in the past week. The biggest one, an attack on a Sufi shrine Thursday left at least 80 people dead. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem looks at the significance of the timing and what these attacks mean for Pakistan’s efforts to eliminate terrorism.
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Malaysia performed a second autopsy on the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader because the first procedure was inconclusive, piling on the intrigue surrounding what appeared to be a well-executed assassination at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, an official said Saturday. Police arrested a fourth suspect, identified as a North Korean man. 

The second autopsy clearly enraged North Korea, which has vowed to reject the results of any post-mortem and demanded that Malaysia turn over the body immediately. 

Speaking to reporters outside the morgue late Friday, Pyongyang’s ambassador said Malaysian officials may be “trying to conceal something” and “colluding with hostile forces.” 

Inconclusive autopsy 

A Malaysian official with knowledge of the investigation confirmed the second autopsy started Friday night and said that the results of the first one were inconclusive. He asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media. 

The inconclusive autopsy results raise questions about the mysterious death of Kim Jong Nam, but a lack of closure and a lingering sense of the unknown aren’t unusual when it comes to North Korea. While South Korea has blamed North Korea for a slew of notable assassinations or attempted killings in past decades, the North often denies involvement or simply doesn’t comment. 

Malaysia has arrested four people so far, the lastest a man carrying an ID that identified him as 46-year-old Ri Jong Chol. He was picked up Friday night. 

Authorities were still trying to piece together details of the case. 

Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46 and had lived in exile for years, suddenly fell ill at the Kuala Lumpur airport Monday as he waited for a flight home to Macau. Dizzy and in pain, he told medical workers at the airport he had been sprayed with a chemical. He died while being taken to a hospital. 

South Korea has accused its enemies in North Korea of dispatching a hit squad to kill Kim Jong Nam, saying two female assassins poisoned him and then fled in a taxi. 

One suspect duped, police say 

On Friday, Indonesia’s police chief said an Indonesian woman arrested for suspected involvement in the killing was duped into thinking she was part of a comedy show prank. 

Indonesian police chief Tito Karnavian, citing information received from Malaysian authorities, told reporters in Indonesia’s Aceh province that Siti Aisyah, 25, was paid to be involved in “Just For Laughs” style pranks, a reference to a popular hidden camera show. He said she and another woman performed stunts that involved convincing men to close their eyes and then spraying them with water. 

“Such an action was done three or four times and they were given a few dollars for it, and with the last target, Kim Jong Nam, allegedly there were dangerous materials in the sprayer,” Karnavian said. “She was not aware that it was an assassination attempt by alleged foreign agents.” 

Malaysian police were questioning four suspects: Aisyah, another woman who carried a Vietnamese passport; a man they said is Aisyah’s boyfriend; and the North Korean man.

North breaks silence 

North Korea broke its silence on the case Friday night. Speaking to reporters gathered outside the morgue in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, North Korean Ambassador Kang Chol said Malaysia conducted the autopsy on Kim Jong Nam “unilaterally and excluding our attendance.” 

“We will categorically reject the result of the post-mortem,” Kang said, adding that the move disregarded “elementary international laws and consular laws.” 

Kang said the fact that Malaysia has yet to hand over the body “strongly suggests that the Malaysian side is trying to conceal something which needs more time and deceive us, and that they are colluding with the hostile forces towards us who are desperate to harm us.” 

Malaysia is one of just a handful of countries to have full diplomatic ties with North Korea, with each country having an embassy in the other’s capital. Malaysia has also been a key place for quiet, semi-official “track 2” diplomatic talks between North Korea and with the United States. 

Malaysia said Friday it wants DNA samples from Kim Jong Nam’s family as part of the post-mortem procedure and that officials were not yet willing to hand the body over to the North Koreans. Although Kim Jong Nam is believed to have two sons and a daughter with two women living in Beijing and Macau, police in Malaysia say none has come forward to claim the body or provide DNA samples. 

“If there is no claim by next-of-kin and upon exhausting all avenues (to obtain DNA), we will finally then hand over the body to the (North Korean) embassy,” said Abdul Samah Mat, a senior Malaysian police official. He would not say how long that process might take. 

Kim Jong Nam was estranged from his younger half brother, the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He reportedly fell out of favor with their father, the late Kim Jong Il, in 2001, when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport to visit Tokyo Disneyland. 
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The Trump administration says it cannot confirm that an Iranian general barred from foreign travel by the U.N. Security Council visited Russia this week, despite a prominent U.S. congressman and news outlet saying he had made the trip.

In an emailed response to a VOA Persian query Friday, a U.S. State Department official who requested anonymity said the administration is aware of media reports about recent travel to Russia by General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the special operations Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

“We’re not in a position to confirm the travel ourselves at this time,” the official said. “As with previous reports of similar travel, the U.N. travel ban on Soleimani remains in effect, so such travel, if confirmed, would be a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and, thus, a serious matter of concern to the United States and members of the U.N. Security Council.”

Congressman doesn’t hesitate

Republican Congressman Ed Royce, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed no such hesitation when speaking about Soleimani on Thursday to U.S. television network Fox News. He said the Iranian general “was just caught in Moscow violating existing sanctions on his travel.”

A day earlier, a Fox News online report cited “multiple Western intelligence officials with direct knowledge of (Soleimani’s) visit” as saying that the Iranian general “arrived in Terminal A of Vnukovo airport outside Moscow on February 14 on Mahan Air WD084 at 12:13 p.m. local time and was scheduled to remain in Russia for a few days for meetings.”

Royce said “it is the third time” that Soleimani has visited Russia since the U.N. Security Council approved resolution 2231 endorsing Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers July 20, 2015.

A spokesman for Royce did not respond to a VOA email asking for the source of the lawmaker’s information about the Iranian general, whom the lawmaker accused of being responsible for the deaths of about 500 U.S. military personnel in Iraq by leading a Quds Force effort to supply weapons to anti-American Iraqi Shi’ite militants.

The UN resolution

Section 6 (e) of resolution 2231’s Annex B calls on all states to “take the necessary measures to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories of individuals” designated by the council as having engaged in illicit activities — a designation it had given to Soleimani in the past.

Western media have quoted sources as saying Soleimani visited Russia July 24, 2015, days after resolution 2231’s adoption, and made a second trip April 14, 2016. 

Jeffrey Feltman, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, notified the Security Council last July of “possible foreign travel” by Soleimani “contrary to the provisions” of resolution 2231.

Congressman calls for sanctions

Royce said he had obtained photographs of Soleimani’s previously reported visits to Moscow and criticized the Obama administration as being weak for not confirming that the trips had happened and that the U.N.’s travel ban had been violated.

He called on the Trump administration to respond to Soleimni’s latest reported Russia trip by imposing new sanctions barring companies from doing business in Iran.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced its first sanctions against Iran since taking office in January. It froze any property or funds held by 13 Iranian individuals and 12 companies under U.S. jurisdiction, in retaliation for Iran’s January 29 ballistic missile test that Washington criticized as undermining regional security and putting American lives at risk.

There has been no word from the White House of any additional Iran sanctions under consideration.

Fox News reported that Soleimani was in Moscow this week to express displeasure with Russia’s recent military and economic overtures to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states that Iran sees as rivals for regional influence.

But former U.S. intelligence officer Paul Pillar, now a security studies analyst at Georgetown University, told VOA Persian it is incorrect to presume that Soleimani was in Moscow to communicate Iran’s resentment about Russian relations with Arab nations.

“The focus (of the trip) obviously would be on events in Syria, where both Russia and Iran, especially the IRGC headed by General Soleimani, are heavily involved in the effort to shore up the position of the Assad regime,” Pillar said.

The Iranian defense ministry’s news agency published photos of Soleimani attending a ceremony in Tehran on Thursday, two days after his reported arrival in Moscow. The website’s homepage initially said it had posted the photos “in response to U.S. claims” about the general, but it later removed that language.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to a VOA request to confirm or deny that Soleimani was in Moscow this week. Russia and Iran both have denied the previous reports of Soleimani traveling to Moscow.

Additional reporting by Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Steve Herman, Hooman Bakhtiar of VOA’s Persian Service and Mehdi Jedinia of VOA’s Extremism Watch Desk.

 
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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday raised the need to “create a level playing field for trade and investment” in his first meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to the State Department.

In the readout by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both had agreed to “strengthen cooperation in the fields of economy, finance and security,” seen by some as much diluted wording.

Both met for about an hour on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of the G-20 top economies in Bonn, Germany.

“So nice to see you,” Tillerson said as he shook Wang’s hand, while apologizing for keeping Wang waiting. The top diplomat for the U.S. was late because of another sideline meeting about Syria.

China criticized as a ‘cheater’

While in many ways this seems typical of prior meetings of foreign ministers between Washington and Beijing, it is “unusual” for a secretary of state to advocate the need for a fair playing field in commerce, according to Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“That signals the priority this set of issues is accorded by President Trump,” Glaser told VOA on Friday.  

President Donald Trump has bluntly criticized China as a “cheater” and a currency manipulator, accusing it of unfair practices that have blocked many U.S. exports, and producing a trade imbalance that has killed American jobs.  

Trump also has threatened to impose a comprehensive tax on Chinese imports.

‘One-China policy’

In the Chinese readout, Beijing said, “The U.S. side made it clear that it would continue to adhere to the one-China policy,” which is absent in the State Department’s readout.  

“There is the classic testing of intentions on big issues, to get a quick read where the other stands,” said Center for the National Interest Director of Defense Studies Harry Kazianis.

“They set the foundation for the future and are critically important,” Kazianis added.

China pressed over North Korea

Notably, North Korea’s threats are both highlighted by Tillerson and his Chinese counterpart. Washington pressed Beijing to help assert more control over North Korea after a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

Acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday in Bonn that Tillerson “urged China to use all available tools to moderate North Korea’s destabilizing behavior.”

North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on February 12, followed by strong international condemnation, including that of the U.N. Security Council.  

Wang told Tillerson the U.S. and China have joint responsibilities to maintain global stability, adding common interests between the two countries far outweigh their differences.

One of the channels to manage U.S.-China relations is the bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), an annual high-level gathering for two countries to discuss a wide range of regional and global issues.

It started under the George W. Bush administration as the Strategic Economic Dialogue and was later upgraded by former President Barack Obama after he took office.

A different approach

Some regional scholars expect the Trump administration to veer from the long-standing U.S. approach, though, and downsize such a mechanism, or even end it.

“I would be somewhat surprised if the S&ED has any future,” Atlantic Council resident senior fellow Robert Manning told VOA.

“It has become a somewhat hollow bureaucratic ritual, a checklist for the vast sweep of U.S.-China bilateral issues,” said Manning, adding the “structure and content” of relations between Washington and Beijing is “at a tipping point.”

Manning said the key is to identify a few core issues that can define the character of the relationship. “Finding a formula for reciprocity is key to a sustainable economic relationship,” he said.  

A change in S&ED

Proponents of continuing the S&ED said it mobilizes bureaucracies on both sides, promotes interagency coordination, and helps to increase cooperation in areas where the U.S. and China have shared interests.  

“My guess is that it will continue in some form, but will be much smaller and policy-focused,” said Glaser.  

“This administration wants to see progress on a much more fair trade relationship,” said Kazianis, adding “if Beijing is willing to work toward a more equitable and fair trade relationship, I would assume this would continue. If not, it could very well be downsized or disregarded all together.”

The first year will be rocky and it may be until June before there is a functioning policy process, given the chaos in the White House and State Department, according to Manning.  

Tillerson’s deputy and many senior positions at the State Department have yet to be filled.
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